We have spent two full days in Istanbul and we love the city. We both agree that it is the best city that either of us have traveled to. First, it is beautiful. The city sits off three waterways: the Halic, the Bosphorous, and the Marmara Sea. There are restaurants lined up all along the different shorelines for amazing dinning experiences. Additionally, Istanbul is very hilly. The terrain makes the area even more beautiful. There are also many rooftop restaurants that take advantage of the beautiful seas that overlooks three bodies of water and two continents. That is right, we get to look into Europe and Asia as Istanbul is in both. The city is very easy to get around and we feel safe doing so. The Turkish people are very friendly. What is really cool is that there are very diverse people walking around. Historically and still currently, Istanbul is predominately Muslim, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that way as there are a lot of “liberal” Muslims that are not as strict with their dress. All is all, we love this city.
One of the most interesting and disappointing parts of Turkey thus far is seeing what happens in a country were you do not have freedom of speech. The Turkish government has blocked all access to www.youtube.com and we are not allowed to upload pictures on picasa. Here is a link
It makes me think about how lucky we are to live in a country were we have freedom of speech. We can critique the President! People in Turkey cannot even post a youtube video. So I guess as awesome as it is to visit Istanbul, I definitely would not want to live here.
Over the past few days we have seen the popular mosque, the palace, the Grand Bazaar and the waterways. Pictures to come once we get into Greece where I have my freedom back. However, my favorite part of Istanbul thus far has been the food. We have eaten great food. Most noticeably, we have had two amazing dinners on the rooftop of our hotel. We had a humus dish with minced meat which was to die for. Last night I had the best what I will call “non-traditional” dessert ever (calling it that, because I am not sure anything beats a cookie dough blizzard!). It had the consistency of the filling of a great homemade Italian cannoli, but was in the form of a small piece of cake. I wish Kristen would have gotten a picture before my last bite! This restaurant over looked the water and was gorgeous.
We are headed to the west coast of Turkey this evening to see what it has to offer!
No comments:
Post a Comment